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I don’t want to offend anyone, but are we sure there is no such thing as too much football?
On Wednesday, ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported that the NFL is “considering” adding a game the night before Thanksgiving to its annual schedule, possibly starting as early as the 2026 season. Of course, the NFL doesn’t do much “considering” these days. The league just does it.
And since the NFL is purchasing four additional games for (probably) a streamer, it’s safe to expect a game on Thanksgiving Eve as soon as this season.
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Micah Parsons #1 of the Green Bay Packers takes a bite of a turkey leg after the game against the Detroit Lions at Ford Field on November 27, 2025 in Detroit, Michigan. (Nic Antaya/Getty Images)
As for the league’s motivation, Netflix currently pays the NFL $75 million per game for its Christmas doubleheaders. Exclusively broadcasting a game the night before Thanksgiving could cost a similar amount.
With a market capitalization approaching $4 trillion, YouTube’s parent company, Alphabet, is positioned to outperform any potential rivals. YouTube VP of Subscriptions Christian Oestlien also recently expressed interest in adding more NFL games to the platform.
“We want YouTube to be a central part of their media distribution,” Oestlien told The Athletic.
As background, the expectation is that Wednesday night’s game will air in addition to the rest of the Thanksgiving and Black Friday programming.
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Here’s a look at the possible 10-day stretch of football in November:
- Saturday: Full College Football Slate
- Sunday: Complete NFL Roster
- Monday: Monday night football
- Tuesday: MACtion Wednesday: NFL game
- Thanksgiving: NFL games
- Black Friday: NFL game
- Saturday: College Football Rivalry Week
- Sunday: Complete NFL Roster
- Monday: Monday night football
Even if you don’t count college football games, that’s a lot of football. It also follows a familiar pattern of further diluting the NFL product, whose popularity was once tied to its scarcity.
Thanksgiving football is a tradition, although it’s less exciting to wake up that morning to watch the first matchups of the new week if there was already a game the night before. Likewise, NFL RedZone gained cultural appeal as a way to follow a series of intriguing Sunday matchups at once. However, by the first Sunday after Thanksgiving, 10 teams will have already played.
Dallas Cowboys wide receiver George Pickens (3) celebrates by eating turkey after the game against the Kansas City Chiefs at AT&T Stadium on Nov. 27, 2025. (Kevin Jairaj/Image Images)
Additionally, there would still be three nationally televised games left between Sunday afternoon (which is national for most of the country), Sunday Night Football, and Monday Night Football.
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And there simply aren’t enough good and interesting teams to extend the domestic schedule that much.
Last year, only one of the teams that played on Thanksgiving Day made the playoffs: the Packers. The other five did not: Chiefs, Cowboys, Bengals, Ravens and Lions.
The much-hyped Christmas Day slate was worse. Cowboys vs. Commanders had two teams already eliminated from the postseason. The Chiefs vs. Broncos featured a Kansas City team without Patrick Mahomes that was also already eliminated from the playoffs. Lions vs Vikings featured two teams that missed the playoffs in a 23-10 game with Max Brosmer at quarterback for Minnesota.
“But, Bobby, don’t watch if you don’t like it. Go watch a true crime documentary.“, some user X is about to demand.
Look, maybe I will. However, most of you won’t. And no one disputes that Americans won’t watch the extra games on television.
Still, at some point, the proliferation of poorly played nationally televised games, combined with the dearth of exciting Sunday matchups, will push viewers to wait a day and skip a game or two.
The league is not as invincible as it seems either.
Jordan Love #10 of the Green Bay Packers takes a bite out of a turkey leg after the game against the Detroit Lions at Ford Field on November 27, 2025 in Detroit, Michigan. (Nic Antaya/Getty Images)
Last season was not the victory that the league claims. The NFL claims a 10 percent year-over-year viewership increase, marking the second-highest average viewership since tracking began in 1988. But that’s not exactly true.
The television industry believes that when Nielsen changed its tracking methodology to Big Data + Panel last August, estimates for live sporting events increased by approximately 8%. Therefore, the 2025 regular season did not see a true double-digit increase.
Applying the same logic, the Super Bowl drop was probably closer to 7-10% instead of 2%.
These are not dramatic collapses. However, the idea that the NFL continues to gain popularity year after year, regardless of its programming decisions, is misleading.
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Call me all the names you want. We don’t need football matches on Wednesdays and Fridays, or early Sunday mornings in Europe, or probably on Tuesdays.
We also shouldn’t need six to seven different services/channels to watch games, as the expansion of Thanksgiving week football would require.
